Praying like Habakkuk

As of late, I have been feeling slightly disconnected from the Lord. Actually, I have had this feeling often in the past. I often tend to get in the mindset that to be pursing the Lord, I have to either read the Bible or pray. The problem with this is that I then read the word or pray simply to fulfill my "obligation" to the Lord, or to check it off my list so that I can feel like I've done my 'christian time' of the day. My time of prayer then often feels like a ritual as I go through my typical prayer routine of asking God for forgiveness for my recent trespasses, thanking Him for the blessings in my life, and then bringing my requests to Him. Something in me keeps nagging at me that this is not enough, and is not how God intended for me to be communicating with Him. This was brought to light tonight when I was reading the book of Habakkuk. It is an obscure book of the Old Testament that does not seem to get much attention. Why was I reading it? Well I stumbled across the new blog of Mark Driscoll and his wife Grace - http://pastormark.tv/ - and found a section written by his daughter Ashley. She said that her favorite book of the bible is Habakkuk because of how the author depicts prayer. Having never read the book before and feeling a pull from the Holy Spirit to read it, I decided it was worth reading. To sum up the book from my perspective (aided by the ESV study bible commentary) Habakkuk is talking to God and is airing his complaints about what he is seeing in Israel and their complete lack of faith in Him, the Lord answering him, followed by praise to the Lord for His steadfastness and faithfulness to His people.

The main thing that struck me in here was how Habakkuk interacts and talks to the Lord. He is talking to God as if he were talking to a friend. He is not following a prayer routine like I often feel like I am, but rather talking to God, actually complaining at times, about what is on his heart. This is what prayer should be like. Our relationship with God should not be a long distance one where we only communicate when things are really good or really bad. Habakkuk is not talking to God because he feels like it is something he needs to do. He is doing it because he cares about the things that God cares about, and has a deep passion to be involved with the things that are of God's heart. Just as you or I would do with someone that we love and care deeply for. I don't communicate with Sarah because I feel like I need to or just when I want something. I do it because I have a passion to know her more, to be in tuned with her hear and know the things that are important to her. This is how I need to be communicating with my heavenly father. He longs deeply for me and to have relationship with me, and I think this is the longing that I have been feeling in my heart. Though it seems foreign to me, the kind of relationship that Habbakuk had with the Lord is the kind that I want, that I am longing for.

I would also like to begin praying more for my brothers and sisters in Christ. A big part of Habakkuk's reason for crying out to God was that he was deeply concerned for his fellow Israelites. I want to pray for you, to care deeply for what is on your hearts and what is happening in your lives. So if you read this, please comment or send me a facebook message or email with what is going on in your life or prayer requests that I can bring before the Lord and  begin to understand His heart for us.